The Moving picture world (May 1920-June 1920)

June 12, 1920 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1469 Future Productions of Famous Players to Prove Value of Sound Organization THE motion picture has reached a state that demands organization — the big, intricate, highly specialized organization, which alone is capable of producing the type of photoplays that please the public and are successful at the box office. Famous Players-Lasky Corporation has this organization. Famous Players-Lasky has it because the men at the head of this corporation long ago had the vision to see that the day was coming when the public would demand that producers produce photoplays and not merely manufacture movies. The production department of the corporation did not spring into being over night; it is the fruition of years of patient toil, eternal vigilance, alertness to the constant growth of the motion picture art, and the combined efforts of a corps of men and women who have blended the best talent and genius of the new art with a fine loyalty to an ideal. Only such an organization, backed by resources which place every possible facility and aid in the hands of directors and stars, is capable of producing the newer and finer type of pictures which the season now closing has so conclusively shown to be what the public wants. Twenty-fiTe Four Months in Advance. Only such an organization could have ready — in exchanges waiting to be shown to exhibitors — the really notable list of photoplays we now have on hand for the coming season. It is by means of this organization that we have been able to produce twenty-five pictures four months in advance of the opening of the season, September 1. The best promise which the production department of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation can make for the next year is the twenty-five pictures which have already been made. These pictures include such sterling photoplays as George Fitzmaurice's special production, "The Right to Love"; the Elsie Ferguson picture, "Lady Rose's Daughter"; Thomas Meighan in "Civilian Clothes"; Roscoe Arbuckle in "The RoundUp"; a wonderful new William S. Hart picture, "The Cradle of Courage," and "Something to Think AlDout," which, I am assured, is one of the best pictures Cecil B. DeMille ever made. Just as the public has now come to discriminate between good and mediocre photoplays— and discriminate by reading motion picture advertising — so the motion picture has grown to a point that demands infinitely more than a director, a camera and a star. And the new season beginning on September 1 marks the crossroads where exhibitors and producers must elect whether they want to climb the road to tetter pictures or make the easy descent along the other road to mediocrity, oblivion and bankruptcy. Public Wants Big Specials. The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation's production department will continue on the high road. It is our plan to make 104 pictures during the coming year — and every one of these productions will be given all the care and skill and thought that long experience and the best of production genius can supply. That the public wants the big, special production was established this year, not only to our satisfaction, but also to the satisfaction and profit of the thousands of exhibitors who were foresighted enough to book such splendid Paramount productions as George Loane Tucker's "The Miracle By JESSE L. LASKY First Vice-President in Charge of Production Man"; Cecil B. DeMille's wonderful productions, "Male and Female" and "\Vhy Change Your Wife"; George Melford's "Everywoman," "The Sea Wolf," George Fitzmaurice's "On with the Dance," "The Copperhead" and that remarkable photoplay, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." In the season 1920-21 is is our intention to develop this policy of big special productions. Specials will be produced in the ratio of two to every four Paramount pictures made. And the making of these specials will be in the hands of such masters as Cecil B. DeMille, George Fitzmaurice, George H. Melford, William D. Taylor, who made "Huckleberry Finn," William DeMille and other prominent directors, whose names will be announced later. "A Vast Invisible Force." Back of every one of our directors, back of every one of our stars, is a vast invisible force of writers, artists, technicians. Experience has shown that even the best directors cannot do their best work while burdened with the cares and innumerable duties of business. Their task is to make pictures, and they cannot produce the best pictures unless the multiplicity of details are removed and placed in the hands of an organization. Thus the organization we have built up assures the exhibitors the very best work of the artists assembled for the production of Paramount pictures. Moreover, the photoplay material which we place in the hands of our directors and stars is not the output of hack writers. We have a big reservoir of novels, short stories and stage plays, the work of recognized writers, which enables us to choose only the very best material for our artists. Great Producing Activities. Our studio facilities have been enlarged to such an extent in the last year to surpass even the imagination of the men who started this art. The new season will see us producing pictures in Hollywood, in the new $2,000,000 studio in Long Island City, in our new studio in London and in our new studio about to be built in Bombay, India. Every one of these studios is of such magnitude and is so well equipped as to aflford the greatest possible resources for directors and artists. The new eastern studio in Long Island City, for instance, will allow eight companies to work on its stages at the same time. In the London studio only big special pro ductions will be made, with English casts, in English settings. This will bring a new and utterly distinctive note to the screens of America. But the most far reaching studio development of the coming season will be the production of pictures in our new studio in Bombay, affording as it does the production of photoplays in a picturesque land that is virgin territory to the motion picture director. This is what I mean by production organization. This is what I mean when I say that successful photoplays cannot be made on promises and publicity. The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation's production organization, like its distributing system, is world-wide. It has the resources and the facilities to bring to the screens of American exhibitors the very best photoplays that can be produced anywhere in the world, and in the season of 1920-21 it is our intention to use this vast production organization to the utmost of its powers, to the end that exhibitors will be able to promise their patrons the very best in -motion picture art. Washburn's "Burglar Proof" Is Full of Excellent Comedy EVERYBODY in town was at the sta' tion waiting for the train that would take them all on their annual excursion to Crystal Springs. That is, everybody was there but Johnny. Johnny's best girl was there, of course, all dressed up. But the train came in and no Johnny. Then, a minute before the train pulled out, Johnny came sprinting up to the station and explained that he couldn't take Jenny after all: he was broke. And that's how Bryant Washburn loses his girl at the very star of his November Paramount picture, "Burglar Proof." Jenny (Grace Morse) is a good looking girl and another swain comes along to whom five dollars is no object. So Jenny goes and Johnny gets left. Special interest attaches to this production because it is the first motion picture directed by Major Maurice Campbell, well known stage director. Major Campbell spent si.x months at the Lasky studios studying the technique of the films under such directors as William DeMille before he undertook "Burglar Proof." The result is one of the best Washburn comedies yet made. Lois Wilson, one of the most charming of leading women, plays opposite Washburn. Tom Geraghty did the scenario from William Slavens McNutt's story. A Trio of Stars to Produce for Paramount. Left to right: Sydney Chaplin, Gloria Swanson and John Barrymore.